A New Chance for Conservation

Thursday, October 8, 2015

by Lincoln Park Zoo

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The Indonesian island of Bali is home to many wonders, but my favorite among them is one of the rarest birds on Earth: the Bali mynah.

Known for its vivid plumage and sweet song, the Bali mynah has essentially disappeared from the wild due to poaching for the illegal pet trade. These songbirds are now found almost exclusively in zoos, including Lincoln Park Zoo’s McCormick Bird House.

Bali mynahs have almost disappeared from the wild due to the illegal pet trade, but Lincoln Park Zoo has joined a new partnership to restore the species.

Helping this bird recover has long been a priority for Lincoln Park Zoo. Toward that end, two of our experts—Vice President of Animal Care and Education Megan Ross, Ph.D., and Hope B. McCormick Curator of Birds Sunny Nelson—traveled around the world last week to attend the Bali Mynah International Workshop.

The workshop brought together experts from around to globe to discuss how to best save this critically endangered species. Megan and Sunny met with reintroduction specialists, representatives from European and Asian zoos, non-governmental organizations and, of course, stakeholders with roots on Bali, from forestry and environmental officials to private landowners.

Vice President of Animal Care and Education Megan Ross, Ph.D., and Hope B. McCormick Curator of Birds Sunny Nelson (second row, flanking man in green shirt) traveled around the world last week to attend the Bali Mynah International Workshop.

Megan and Sunny have their own credentials for Bali mynah conservation. Megan serves as coordinator for the Bali Mynah Species Survival Plan®, a shared conservation effort by zoos throughout North America, while Sunny is developing a master’s project on Bali mynah conservation.

That vital effort took a big step forward with the meeting’s conclusion, which saw the creation of an international working group to advance Bali mynah recovery. Beyond defining conservation goals, participants committed to evaluating the genetics of the global Bali mynah population, getting documents translated so international participants can see Indonesian conservation planning documents and developing husbandry guidelines to ensure Bali mynahs receive the same top standard of care, regardless of where they live.

President and CEO Kevin Bell in Indonesia around 1990, working with local partners to catalogue endangered Bali mynahs that were being kept as pets.

It’s great to see a tangible plan for Bali mynah recovery—and to see experts from Lincoln Park Zoo at the heart of it. I’m familiar with the long road this beautiful bird has taken toward recovery. In the 1980s and 1990s I traveled regularly to Indonesia myself to participate in a release program for Bali mynahs. It’s unfortunate this species still needs help all these years later, but thankfully we have the right people working to make a difference.

Kevin Bell

Learn More

Revisiting the Wild
President and CEO Kevin Bell shares a hatch for a species that's nearly extinct in the wild--and some fun photos from his field conservation work in Bali in the early 1990s.